Analysis of The Shadow-Third

Roderic Quinn 1867 (Surry Hills, New South Wales) – 1949 (Darlinghurst, New South Wales)



THEY met in the old conventional way,
And married, and that was the end
Of a little matter that touched three hearts —
A girl, a man, and his friend.
You see, when he saw her great blue eyes
The love of his life began,
And — well — it was money the woman craved,
Not flesh and blood and a man.
She married, for money, her lover's friend —
And thus it came to be
That the man went out of life one night
As a wind goes out to sea.
She did not smile nor sorrow, they say;
She showed no sign of care,
But, ever since, 'twixt the wedded twain
There stands a vacant chair.
And when they stroll through the street at times,
Or pace some garden green,
They walk so spaced, it will seem to you
That a man might walk between.


Scheme ABCBDEFEBGHGAIJIKLML
Poetic Form Etheree  (25%)
Metre 1100101001 01001101 1010101111 0101011 111110111 0111101 0111100101 1101001 1101100101 011111 101111111 1011111 111111011 111111 110110101 110101 011110111 111101 111111111 1011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 712
Words 149
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 541
Words per stanza (avg) 147
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
35

Roderic Quinn

Roderic Joseph Quinn was an Australian poet. more…

All Roderic Quinn poems | Roderic Quinn Books

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